Christmas Goodies and Merriment

Christmas Goodies

This Saturday was our third annual girlie Christmas 'do'. An affair that usually involves food, cocktails, bubbles, a wee gift exchange, and bucket loads of inappropriate jokes and laughs.

We headed to Hoi Polloi in Shoreditch.  A pretty fantastic place actually, exceeding expectations. Design is psuedo Scandi hunting lodge with a dash of East London hipster.  Now, sometimes these new up and comers are all hype and no substance, but Hoi Polloi have a winning formula.  Well at least for us that evening it was two big 'ol thumbs up. 

Once we all arrived, 3 of 4 of us being late (I was second!) and our cocktails were in hand we tackled the newspaper like menu and started with chickpea fritters and tarragon yogurt. With 6 "fritters" (looking oddly like mozzarella cheese sticks but thankfully tasting a whole lot better) for £3 it was good value. 

Also on sharing order were cauliflower cheese (with Stilton and almonds - delicious) and the veggie version of "dripping chips".  NOTE: Must return for the dripping variety.

There were also main courses and deserts.  And a bottle of Prosecco.  Oh, and one complimentary double chocolate cookie brought to GT by an admiring waiter.  She shared with the rest of us. The cookie, not the waiter.

For our little gift exchange I thought I'd bake up an assortment of goodies and package them up nicely for the girls.  There's something I really love about home-made gifts around the holidays.  I know it's not everyone's cup of tea but making things for others gives me the warm fuzzies.  Plus, due to slight limitations on the size of the bags I'd purchased to give the cookies in - I had a few leftovers that needed gobbling.  I was happy to help.

So what were in the treat bags?

Lemon butter cookies with white chocolate and edible sparkles
- You'll see the linked recipe tops the cookies with a lemon icing, I used melted white chocolate thinned out a teensy bit with lemon juice.

Peanut butter cookies with mini peanut butter cups
- I replaced the Hershey's chocolate kiss with mini peanut butter cups from Trader Joes, "smuggled" back from the US into the UK.

Toffee squares - written about previously in this blog.

So far JF and GT have reported back that their favourites are the peanut butter and lemon ones respectively.  I don't like to pick favourites so instead find when it's time to eat one I just eat one of EACH.  Three in a go. On repeat until they run out.

Thanksgivukkah in London

Makeshift Thanksgivvukah Meal

It's bound to be a good night when your guests are assigned pre-arrival homework, no?

For the past seven years I have been in the UK for Thanksgiving.  I've spent some travelling, most at work, I've even occasionally chosen to celebrate the Saturday following when I had time to cook. But never ever have I had anyone round on the actual day.  This year however was an exception because it was the first in about...well a lot...of years that Thanksgiving and Hanukkah overlapped.

Such excitement! Such food possibilities! Such amazing plays on words! (Someone really needs to add Menurkey into the Merriam-Webster Dictionary).  So when it came time to decide what to do, I figured I'd invite just a few of my favourites around for an informal Thansgivukkah celebration.

I had four people joining me that night.  None are American.  Two are Jewish but well, of the less religious variety like me.  I figured I'd need to prep them somewhat for what was in store.  Hence the homework which consisted of a very scholarly article on the two holidays.  And a high-brow video of Hanukkah, the festival of lights.

Now considering I was working that day to bring home the proverbial bacon, I'd positioned it with my friends as an informal snackaroo fest as I'd not have time to get down and dirty sticking my hands into the nether regions of a turkey and making a proper full-on dinner.

So what could I do that screamed Thanksgiving? Hanukkah? Thanksgivukkah!? Well, on hand were two types of home made potato latkes, regular potato and a sweet potato variety. Thanksgiving represented herself in the magnificent form of a spiced chocolate pecan pie with cream cheese crust I'd made at 5 am that morning.  Add to the mix bucket loads of red wine and snacks galore, friends did not go home hungry.  In fact, the only things they left with were full bellies and doggy bags of leftovers.  Which is, in fact - quite like the real holidays anyway.